East Side’s call to developers — build it now, or it will cost you

Developers, brokers and anyone with a stake in San Antonio’s real estate market squished into the Alamo Beer Company yesterday not for the beer, but to listen to yet another argument for why they should start taking a serious look at building on the East Side.

It’s an argument many may have thought they’d heard before, but at San Antonio for Growth on the Eastside’s Developer Open House, it was clear the area is changing. And fast.

A panel discussion including Terramark Urban Homes CEO Charlie Turner, The NRP Group’s Senior Vice President of Development Dan Markson, local Realtor Sylvie Shurgot and DH Realty Partners’ Charles Jeffers spoke to the Topo Chico-sipping crowd about their own start in the area, how quickly the area is changing and how they all expect prices to continue to surpass anyone’s expectations.

When she checks in on the past month’s home sale prices and activity, Shurgot said she’s always taken aback by just how much certain neighborhoods on the East Side have grown.

The local Realtor, who focuses on the Dignowity Hill area, said the spurt of demand for both vacant lots and dilapidated single-family homes will continue to push values and selling prices in the area upward.

Turner — one of the pioneering developers responsible for proving the East Side’s townhome market — believes so strongly in the area that he’s transitioning all of his Terramark employees from Houston to the new office building he is developing at 901 Pine St. in the former Childress Memorial Church Of God In Christ’s Fellowship Hall.

For more on that decision, check out the story I wrote about Terramark’s personal investment on the East Side here.

“New development begets other new developments,” Turner said. “Successful projects give everyone confidence. We see it as a fertile area that will only continue to grow.”

The NRP Group, which is currently developing the 268-unit Crockett Street Urban Lofts at 243 Center St., said the initial head-scratcher was how to bring the quality to the area but getting the price right.